


#CropTopMovement

by i_kinda_like_writing



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: #CropTopMovement, Awesome, F/M, Friendship, Harvard University, I don't really know what to tag this, Implied Lardo/Shitty, M/M, Pre-Slash Dex/Nursey, Social Media, crop tops, that's about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 21:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6923815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_kinda_like_writing/pseuds/i_kinda_like_writing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shitty Knight is kicked out of his Criminal Law lecture because his professor refuses to teach him while Shitty is wearing a crop top. The Samwell Men’s Hockey Team learns of this and starts a Crop Top Movement that will change the world forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	#CropTopMovement

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was written because I need more boys in crop tops in my life and because of that scene in Legally Blonde where Elle Woods is kicked out of class like wtf? Can professors really do that? That sucks. So here, have a bunch of hockey bros wearing crops tops and starting a movement. Warnings for asshole professors and the blatant overuse of the word “crop top”.  
> I hope y'all enjoy!

Shitty wakes up ten minutes before his lecture on Criminal Law starts. His alarm didn’t go off because his phone died, so he’s phoneless and late and incredibly panicked as he runs around his room, pulling on clothes. He grabs the first things he finds, which consists of a pair of jeans capris and a crop top he made out of one of his old hockey jerseys.

          He runs to class, cursing himself for smoking so much weed and fucking up his lungs. When he finally makes it to class, he has thirty seconds to spare, and he is so goddamn proud of himself that, at first, he doesn’t notice the look his professor is giving him. He only notices it when the Professor says, “Mr. Knight, please come over here.”

          Shitty walks over. “Yes, sir? I know I’m kind of rushing, but I have like thirty seconds before the lecture officially starts, so-”

          The professor cuts Shitty off. “No, I’m not concerned with your punctuality. I’m more concerned with your clothing.” Shitty looks down at himself and frowns.

          “My crop top?” He looks back up, confused.

          “I’m afraid that I will be unable to teach you while you are wearing such a ridiculous outfit.” The professor glances towards the door. “Please don’t return to my classroom until you are dressed appropriately.”

          “Wait a second; are you kicking me out of class for wearing a crop top?” The professor doesn’t seem to find this as ridiculous as Shitty.

          “If you aren’t going to take my class seriously enough to wear the proper attire I will not teach you.”

          Shitty marches out of the lecture hall, enraged and incredulous.

          What the actual fuck?

 

*~*~*

 

          “Y’all, bad news,” Bitty says as he walks into the Haus living room. The entire room looks up which consists of the whole gang. Holster and Ransom pause their play-wrestling match over what to watch, _The Bachelor_ or _Happy Endings_. Lardo momentarily stops walking across a canvas made out of woven fabric with paint on her feet; it’s her new piece, featuring her own footprints in a multitude of colors and she even borrowed some of the guys’ feet for contrast. It’s gonna be s’wawesome. Chowder stalls his recounting of his most recent date with Farmer, blushing high in his cheeks, which in turn makes Tango divert his attention from the story. Dex and Whiskey stop their conversation about the most recent Marvel movie that came out, which they have differing but mostly positive opinions on, and Nursey takes a break from ~~jealously~~ watching them discuss the film.

          “What’s wrong, Bits?” Ransom asks from where he is currently pinned under Holster. Not that Holster’s winning, though, his left foot is securely held by Ransom’s right hand and one of Holster’s hands is seriously caught in Ransom’s belt.

          “Shitty just called,” Bitty says, frowning deeply. “Apparently, one of his professors refused to let him into the lecture because Shitty was wearing a crop top.”

          “What the fuck, seriously?” Holster sits up and furrows his eyebrows.

          “That’s fucked up,” Ransom agrees, nodding gravely.

          “Yeah, Shitty is pretty upset.” Bitty glares down at his phone like it is the reason for this injustice.

          “We should do something,” Nursey says.

          “What can we do?” Dex asks. “It’s not like we can go to Harvard and harass the professor into letting Shitty wear what he wants.” Holster and Ransom perk up.

          “No,” Ransom says, eyes brightening as an idea forms in his mind.

          Holster, the same idea taking shape in his own head, says, “But we _can_ start a crop top movement.”

          Most of the room stares at them like they’re crazy (which, to be honest, they kind of are), but when they turn to Lardo, eyes wide with excitement, she nods solemnly and says, “I’ll make some calls.”

 

*~*~*

 

          It starts with a shopping trip. Dex knows of some great shops around Samwell that aren’t too expensive, so they all pile into Ransom’s Mom Van and Dex directs Lardo where to go because she is the best driver of all of them. They have a pretty tight budget, as only two of them have jobs and they are pretty low-paying jobs, but they figure crop tops can’t be as expensive as regular shirts because half of the fabric isn’t there.

          Lardo accompanies Chowder and the tadpoles, as they need the most help in this endeavor, and Holster and Ransom immediately head for the section that’s the pinkest and most sparkly. Bitty hangs back with Nursey and Dex as they sift through the surprisingly large crop-top section.

          “I’m easy ‘cause most of the female sizes will fit me fine, but how’re y’all giants going to find something that fits?” Bitty asks as he considers a light blue shirt that reads “I woke up like this”. For a moment, he thinks he’s set, but then his gaze catches on one a few racks away and his eyes widen in excitement.

          “They’re not supposed to fit,” Nursey replies, watching as Bitty races across the store. “They’re crop tops.”

          “They still have to fit somewhat,” Dex says, frowning down at all the colors that will clash terribly with his hair. Bitty has left them, apparently so excited that he has to try on his crop top right this second.

          “Hey, Dexy.” Dex looks up and his face goes completely unamused when he sees the shirt Nursey is holding. Nursey is grinning so wide it must hurt, unbelievably proud of himself for his discovery.

          “No.” The shirt is a greenish blue color that won’t clash too terribly with Dex’s hair, but it’s covered in a pattern of red lobsters and just _no_.

          “Come on, dude.” Nursey shakes the shirt a little, like the movement will entice Dex into purchasing it, and really, it would be perfect. Dex sighs, annoyed that Nursey was the one to find it, and holds his hand out, making a “gimme” motion. “Yes!” Nursey cheers, stepping forward to hand over the garment.

          “I hate you,” Dex grumbles, cheeks pinking up as he looks at the shirt. It seems to just occur to him that he will be wearing a crop top in public, exposing his stomach to the world.

          “No you don’t,” Nursey sings back, still inordinately proud of himself for finding such a gem. Dex thinks that he wouldn’t be so annoyed if anyone else found it. Then Nursey seems to realize why Dex is blushing and his expression softens. “It’ll look great on you, man. Show off what summers of lobster boat working has given you.”

          Dex flushes deeper at the compliment and scowls, but as he turns to go to the dressing rooms, Nursey sees a pleased smile on his face.

          “Nursey! Get over here!” Nursey drags his eyes away from Dex’s expression and jogs over to where Holster and Ransom are still sifting through the colorful crop tops. When he reaches them, he sees Holster holding up a white shirt with the words “Chill out” printed in tie-dyed letters across the chest.

          “Are we good or are we good?” Ransom asks, the grin on his face matching Holster’s. Nursey laughs, taking the shirt and nodding.

          “S’wawesome,” he says, considering the shirt. “I’ll go try it on.”

          “Now,” Holster says as Nursey leaves, “to find the perfect crop tops.”

          A few racks away, Lardo is vetoing a bunch of shirts the tadpoles want to get. They have basically zero fashion sense. Chowder keeps picking shirts that aren’t actually crop tops and Tango keeps asking questions because no one really explained to him what was happening and Whiskey keeps picking boring shirts that have no patterns or sayings or _anything_.

          After the fourth time Whiskey holds up the same plain white crop top, Lardo can’t take it anymore. “That’s it!” She dives into the racks and, three seconds later, comes out with two shirts. “Whiskey, take this.” She shoves a blue hoodie-type crop top that is plain enough that it won’t offend Whiskey’s chill but cute enough to not make Lardo want to groan in frustration at Whiskey and he takes it, considering it with a pleased look on his face. At Tango, she shoves a crop top that is actually inspired by the Riddler but works perfectly for Tango because it is covered in green question marks. “There,” she says, final.

          Chowder, kind of intimidated by Lardo’s expression at the moment, quietly says, “But I-”

          Lardo cuts him off. “We will order a Sharks crop top online. I am done.” Then she walks off towards the dressing rooms to make sure the guys that have already picked out their shirts didn’t make the wrong decisions. Tango and Whiskey stare at each other, in shock and awe at Lardo’s sheer everything. Chowder is grinning widely, super excited at the prospect of a Sharks crop top.

          A half an hour later, everyone has found a crop top- even Lardo found a suitably black one that reads “Don’t care never did” in white painted letters- except for Ransom and Holster. For all their excitement to find the perfect crop tops, they are unable to find ones that are s’wawesome enough to reflect them. The rest of the team joins in to scour the racks for the perfect shirt but twenty minutes later they are still crop topless. The d-men pair stands in the middle of the racks, disheartened and beat and almost ready to give up and go to another store, when Bitty makes a noise from a few rows away.

          “Boys! I think I’ve found it.” Everyone comes rushing over, Holster and Ransom at the front of the pack, and then they suddenly top when they see the shirts Bitty is holding up.

          “Bro,” the two of them breathe at the same time. They do a no-look fist-bump, not taking their eyes off of the shirts.

          Part one of “Fuck Shitty’s Asshole Professor” has been completed.

 

*~*~*

 

          “How do I look?” Holster turns around and gets an eyeful of Ransom in a crop top and a pair of dark blue preppy shorts. His lower stomach is exposed, featuring the tight muscles of his abdominals and a patch of hair leading down and disappearing under the line of his shorts. Holster swallows hard, dragging his eyes away from the exposed skin. It shouldn’t be as tantalizing as it is; Holster sees him virtually naked almost every day. But, for some reason, only exposing that sliver of skin is sexier than just going shirtless.

          “S’wawesome, bro,” Holster says, hoping his voice doesn’t sound too cracked. Ransom beams, looking down at himself.

          “I still can’t believe Bits found these. They’re perfect.” On that, Holster definitely agrees. Somehow, amidst all of the unsuitable crop tops, Bitty was able to find two tie-dyed shirts with the words “Hockey Shit” written across them in black, block letters. They’re considering wearing them for the rest of their segments this year. “You’d better get dressed, dude, the kegster started like twenty minutes ago.”

          Holster nods, turning back to the closet and pulling out his own crop top. He leaves on his jeans and just tugs the shirt on before turning back around to show Ransom. He could be imagining it, but it seems as if Ransom’s eyes linger on Holster’s midriff for a moment before he meets Holster’s eyes and grins wide.

          “S’wawesome.”

          Downstairs, the party has started and the music is shaking through the floorboards. Everyone on campus (minus the LAX bros because fuck them) is probably in the Haus at this point. The windows are rattling with the noise and Ransom is pretty sure he can feel the house swaying with the beat of the bass and he is positively sure that the Haus shouldn’t be holding this many people at once, but it’s fucking _s’wawesome_ downstairs.

          People are drinking and dancing and laughing, so all round, it’s a pretty good kegster. Half an hour into the party, Ransom and Holster come down in their matching crop tops. The party doesn’t stop, per say, because many people are focused on their own situations, but dozens of people look up when they make it to the last step, jaws dropping and throats bobbing. It’s enough of a reaction for Ransom and Holster to do the douche-y head bobbing and look properly full of themselves with attention.

          “You boys look damn fine!” a girl says from a few feet away. Ransom turns to see it’s March from the volleyball team, grinning widely at him and Holster.

          “Thanks!” he calls back, matching her grin with his own. “It’s for the Crop Top Movement!”

          March frowns, confused, and asks, “What’s that?” over the thump of the music.

          So Ransom explains it to her, everything that happened with Shitty and what the team is trying to do. Afterwards, March loves it so much that she takes a picture with him and posts it on Twitter and Instagram with the tag #CropTopMovement. When Ransom looks over to brag to Holster, he finds that Holster is entertaining a whole group of girls, explaining wildly and with hand gestures about the movement. Ransom tries not to feel jealous, as he did leave Holster first, but it’s hard when a bunch of girls are staring in awe at Holster’s happy trail and Holster is just lapping it up.

          “Do you want to dance?” March asks from behind him. Ransom suddenly feels like an ass for ignoring her and turns around.

          “I’ve gotta spread the word,” he says, gesturing to his shirt.

          “You can do that on the dance floor,” she says, smile wide and enticing. Ransom allows her to pull him to the dance floor and she was right, he does get a chance to share the message. He takes at least fifty photos with people, most of them going up on the internet, all with the #CropTopMovement hashtag.

          Despite all the attention, the best part of the party, for Ransom, is when Holster comes back over to him and they dance together for a good twenty minutes. Then they have to go school the Taddies in flip cup and in the game they are dubbed the Crop Top Team and they kick _ass_ until Lardo comes over and gives them all unimpressed looks and says, “Move over, boys.”

          By the end of the night, they’ve taken over two hundred photos and that’s not even counting the ones people took of them without their knowledge. Almost three hundred pictures are up on various social medias, all properly tagged. Combined, they get over ten thousand favorites and likes and a little over five hundred retweets. It’s great publicity for the movement and Holster and Ransom are so proud of themselves that they celebrate with body shots. It’s sticky and messy and probably the best damn part of the entire night.

 

*~*~*

 

          The start of the movement was because Shitty wasn’t allowed to wear crop tops in class, so they have to prove that Samwell is a s’wawesome place that doesn’t deny their students learning because of their attire. The day after the kegster, Bitty has his busiest day of classes, with his science credit in the morning, followed by his women’s lit class, and then his favorite food science course. Two of those lectures have about one hundred students a piece and the third one only has seventy, but that’s still a decent amount of people.

          So in the morning, when Bitty gets dressed, he grins at Señor Bunny as he pulls on his crop top that is white with a drawing of a bunny with the words “Le Lapin” underneath it. It’s simple, but when Bitty saw it he knew he had to get it. It combined both Señor Bunny and Jack, the two people he falls asleep with at night. It was perfect.

          Bitty wakes up extra early and does the commentary for his most recent video, a tutorial on making leaf-shaped pie crust for the coming fall, in his crop top. At the very end of it, he explains what the crop top movement is and why he is wearing it. Then he encourages his fan base to wear their own crop tops and post pictures of it on Twitter under the tag CropTopMovement. He posts it without thinking too hard about it because if he did, he’d get embarrassed for exposing his tummy to the public. Bitty knows how good he looks (Jack is very vocal about that) but he just doesn’t have the confidence Shitty has about his body. The man walks around naked, for Christ’s sake!

          After posting the video, Bitty grabs a coffee at Annie’s and then walks to his first class, a physics lecture. The second he walks into the hall, a bunch of hungover eyes are on him. Anyone who was at the kegster last night knows about the crop top movement and a bunch of them whoop at Bitty’s arrival. Bitty blushes but laughs, waving at all of them. The professor, a tall intimidating woman who always seems to have a pencil in her hair, calls Bitty over to her desk.

          For a moment, Bitty thinks he’s going to be kicked out just like Shitty, but then his professor asks, “Is this for the Crop Top Movement?”

          Bitty, a little taken aback, stutters out, “Uh, yea-yes Ma’am. It’s uh, it’s for my friend Shi- a friend of mine who got kicked out of his lecture at Harvard for wearing a crop top to class. We’re protesting the injustice.” His professor frowns deeply.

          “That’s terrible. Denying a student an education because of their clothing. Here.” She stands, walking around her desk. “Let’s take a photo. I will post it on my own Twitter. Samwell doesn’t take learning opportunities from students.”

          Bitty hasn’t ever really spoken to his professor, as this is a large class, but at the moment he loves her. They take a selfie, Bitty giggling at the hilarity of it and his professor wearing a relaxed expression that he has never seen on her before (physics is serious, okay?). Bitty posts it on his own Twitter with the caption “Take _that_ , Harvard” and his professor puts it on her own with a quick rant about education and judging people based on their attire.

          After class, many of the students want their own photos with Bitty and, when he complies with their requests, the pictures are all posted on Twitter and Instagram, growing the CropTopMovement tag. Everyone that takes a photo with him compliments him as well and Bitty is so flustered by the time that he makes it to his women’s lit class that his professor in that lecture asks him if he’s alright. This leads to him explaining the movement to her as well and then _she_ wants a picture too. Bitty is so delightfully surprised with his professors. He knows that this is Samwell, but it’s still a learning facility, but all of these professors are taking the time to make sure even their former students aren’t denied their education.

          His last class of the day goes later than usual because of all the pictures and explanations of the movement. The professor doesn’t mind at all; he takes a picture with Bitty as well. By the end of the day, Bitty has taken so many selfies that his arm hurts from holding up his camera, but his face also hurts because he can’t stop smiling. Growing up in the south wasn’t terrible and people didn’t hate everything that was different, but Bitty can’t imagine wearing a crop top down in Madison without some kind of backlash. Here, at Samwell, everyone doesn’t only accept him but they are encouraging too. It’s just very overwhelming for a small Southern boy.

          When he gets back to the Haus, he gets whoops from Ransom and Holster, who have been stalking the #CropTopMovement tag all day and are super proud of their Bitty. After being roped into a celebration dance party that consists of a lot of butt shaking, Bitty makes his way up to his room to discover that his most recent video has over 100,000 views and that many of his followers, mostly middle-aged mothers, have borrowed crop tops from their children’s closets and posted their own pictures in support of Shitty. Bitty laughs with tears in his eyes, so deliriously happy about the amount of good people in the world.

          Twitter is blowing up with pictures in the #CropTopMovement tag. It’s not just the team anymore; a bunch of Samwell students have posted their own photos and, of course, Bitty’s fan base. Later that night, when Bitty is skyping with Jack, he tells Jack about all of the photos and support from the campus and his fans and Jack listens to it all with a happy smile on his face. Bitty can feel himself flushing from the affection but he’s too delighted to care.

          “Can you believe that this many people are for our movement?” he asks when he’s finished recounting the day’s events.

          “It’s pretty unbelievable,” Jack says.  “Tater even asked me about it today. He follows you on Twitter or something.” Bitty laughs incredulously, flushing even deeper.

          “What did he say?” he asks, trying not to imagine Tater, all 6 feet and 4 inches of him, wearing a crop top.

          “He wants to wear one, actually. He thinks we should join the movement.” Jack’s eyes are soft and happy, probably amused at the idea of it. But Bitty’s eyes widen in excitement.

          “Sweetheart, you _should_. I didn’t even think of it, but you and the team should join the movement!”

          “Me? In a crop top?” Jack sounds skeptical, but Bitty is running with it.

          “The press would be amazing! We might even be able to force Harvard into changing a bylaw or something. Or ensure that students can’t be turned away for what they’re wearing!” Jack still seems wary, but Bitty is too excited to notice. “Oh Lord, I have to come and visit and we’ll all go out shopping. I’ll bring Lardo too, she has great fashion sense and Lord knows that you hockey boys can use all the help you can get.” Bitty continues to ramble excitedly and Jack watches, content to just listen and watch as Bitty’s cheeks pink up with delight.

          It seems as if Jack is going to be wearing a crop top in public very soon.

 

*~*~*

 

          Nursey shows up at Dex’s dorm before their shared history class with coffee and a crop top that says “Chill out” across the front of it. He knocks heavily on the door, waking Dex up because Nursey is also about half an hour earlier than he usually is. Dex yells at him from inside the dorm, not even opening the door, so Nursey is forced to use his key.

          “Morning, Sunshine,” Nursey sings as he swings the door open.

          “Fuck you,” Dex spits without venom. He’s sitting up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes tiredly with his hair all mussed up. Over the summer Dex actually let it grow out a bit and it looks good. At least, it’s distracting Nursey a decent amount.

          “I thought we could take the long way to the history building so we could really show off our crop tops,” Nursey says, taking a seat at Dex’s desk. He takes a sip of his own coffee, sighing at the sweet taste of the drink. Dex takes his boringly with only a splash of cream. Nursey doesn’t know how anyone could survive without a shitload of sugar in their caffeine.

          “I still have to get dressed.” Dex looks pointedly at Nursey, like this is supposed to invoke a reaction in him.

          Nursey blinks at him, ignorant to what Dex is trying to convey. He asks, “What?” Dex rolls his eyes.

          “I’m naked under here, Nurse.” He says it like he’s annoyed, but his cheeks are turning pink. Nursey tries not to imagine the flush migrating down Dex’s neck and chest to his, apparently, bare- he cuts off that train of thought.

          “So get dressed and let’s go.” Nursey politely turns his head so he isn’t facing Dex’s direction. He’d chirp Dex more about sleeping naked or being embarrassed, but the fact is that he’s getting a little flustered at the thought of Dex naked and only three feet away from him, so he’s taking the path that has the least risk of divulging his feelings.

          “You can turn around now,” Dex says. Nursey turns and gets an eyeful of Dex’s midriff. His muscles are toned and lithe and _oh God_ his happy trail is ginger, which means-

          “We should get going,” Nursey says over the voice inside his head. Dex gives him a weird look, because he said that kind of loudly, but nods and grabs his stuff.

          They head to class the long way, strolling around the Pond while sipping their coffees. It’s nice, just talking without arguing. At first, Dex is flustered at being so exposed, but by the time they actually reach the history building, all of Dex’s reservations have disappeared. On the way there, they get a bunch of looks and a few cheers. Some people even come up to them and ask for pictures, which they agree to as long as the person promises to post it with the #CropTopMovement tag.

          It’s s’wawesome, getting so much publicity for the movement. Nursey knows how conservative places like Harvard and Andover can be and if they can somehow ensure that students are allowed to be themselves then Nursey is all for it. Dex seems to be really into it, too, and whenever someone asks about the movement, he explains it with a cutely serious look on his face and a careful attention to detail.

          Finally, they get to the history building, right on time for class, and after a quick selfie with their professor, they settle into their seats for a lecture. During class, they get into a heated debate over the real start of World War I that their professor doesn’t discourage at all for some reason. At one point, Nursey is pretty sure someone is videotaping it and posting it to Tumblr under the #CropTopMovement tag. It’s a fun debate, not cruelly intentioned or anything, and by the end of it they agree to disagree and Nursey kind of wants to kiss the flush that developed on Dex’s cheeks. After the lecture is over, they take a bunch more pictures with their class and then they head to the dining hall for some breakfast.

          Once again, they are accosted by people who want to take photos with them, but it’s good publicity for the movement, so they aren’t annoyed. After breakfast, they head back to Dex’s dorm, since he doesn’t have a roommate and Nursey does, and spend the rest of the morning doing their separate course work, lounging around in their crop tops. They don’t argue once and, before Nursey has to leave for his econ lecture, they take a selfie, just the two of them, and post that on their respective Twitters under the #CropTopMovement tag.

          Overall, Nursey decides as he looks down at the soft smiles he and Dex are wearing in the picture, it was a pretty great day.

 

*~*~*

 

          Coincidentally, the Samwell Men’s Hockey Team is playing the Harvard hockey team the week after Shitty’s incident happens. It’s a home game, so the Samwell students can come watch and support the team and its movement. At this point, the entire campus is aware of the movement and why it’s happening. And though Shitty might not have had the greatest reputation (“He was that loud hockey guy, right?” “Yeah, he’s the one who made alcohol in his tub”) everyone at Samwell is in support of the #CropTopMovement.

          When the game comes around, the boys all get in their jerseys while Lardo gets in her crop top. It’s classic Lardo style, black with white lettering, and it says “Don’t care never did” which suits Lardo’s aesthetic pretty well. She looks very hot, which Bitty doesn’t hesitate to tell her, and Lardo says “I know” but secretly she’s pleased.

          “You should send a photo to Shitty,” Bitty says, physically restraining himself from winking. Lardo almost blushes so she turns her head away before her stupid cheeks can betray her.

          “We’re keeping it a secret from him, remember?” Lardo sounds more flustered than Bitty has ever heard her (granted, it still isn’t very flustered at all.)

          “Alright,” Bitty says, a pleased smile on his face. The boys skate out onto the rink and Lardo goes with Hall and Murray. The second she steps out of the locker room area and into the arena, Lardo’s jaw drops.

          Almost everyone in the Samwell side of the stadium is wearing red crop tops. They’re not necessarily Samwell themed, but all of them are red and all of them expose the midriff of the wearer. They must be fucking freezing, is what Lardo thinks, because she’s fucking cold. But that’s all she can think because she is in ae of the sheer amazingness of this school. Sometimes she forgets how inclusive this campus is and how fucking _insane_ they are too. Wearing crop tops to a hockey game? It’s made of _ice_.

          The boys skate out onto the ice and entire Samwell side of the arena erupts into cheers. Lardo can tell the exact moment that the boys realize what is happening because they stop skating and just stand there, spinning around and marveling at the stands. Their awe is cut short by the ref, who wants to get the game started, and they head to the bench. The game goes well, with Samwell winning 3 to 1, and the boys play fantastically, the energy in the stadium pushing them even harder than usual.

          In the post-game interview, which isn’t that extensive since it’s just the preseason, Lardo is just going over a play with Murray when suddenly she’s pulled in front of the camera by Holster and Ransom.

          “What the fu-”

          “They wanna know about the Crop Top Movement, Lards,” Holster says, grinning pointedly.

          “Oh.” Lardo looks towards the man holding the camera, who is nodding encouragingly, and coughs. “Well, uh, it’s basically a protest on the Harvard professor who wouldn’t let our former teammate into the lecture because he was wearing a crop top. We think that this is a gross abuse of power and that no student should be denied an education because of what they are wearing.”

          The interviewer says, “So there you have it, folks. Put on your favorite crop top and post it on Twitter with the tag, #CropTopMovement to show your support for the Samwell Men’s Hockey Team and the right to an education.”

          Lardo is released after making her statement and she glares heavily at Holster and Ransom for making her do that, but then her phone lights up with Shitty’s name and she finds herself relaxing a bit. This is all for him, of course.

          She answers it and Shitty starts talking a mile a minute, “Fucking _sick_ game tonight, Lards, you guys fucking destroyed us, it was _s’wawesome_. I couldn’t catch the after interviews ‘cause my roommate wanted to watch _The Bachelor_ and apparently he gets what he wants if I’m allowed to make sex noises at a hockey game for an hour-”

          Lardo smiles to herself, content to just listen to Shitty rant while keeping her secret locked in tight.

 

*~*~*

 

          When Farmer learns of the Crop Top Movement, she tells Chowder that she wants to get involved right away. She has some strong feelings about denying people education for what they’re wearing. In her high school, even though it was so ridiculously hot in Cali, girls weren’t allowed to expose their shoulders by wearing tank tops because it could be “distracting from the curriculum”. The girls who disobeyed this rule were sent to the principal’s office and forced to wait while their parents brought “suitable clothing”.  Apparently, the male population’s potential distraction from schoolwork was more important than forcibly dragging girls away from their own schoolwork because their shoulders were out.

          So Chowder is incredibly enthusiastic about this and tells her he will wait to wear his crop top until she is ready. Farmer knows that the volleyball team has a charity game coming up to raise money for a local no-kill animal shelter, so she calls a team meeting and tells them her idea. Everyone is incredibly enthusiastic, even April who is hardly ever anything but intense and unamused. Everything is all set, so Farmer tells Chowder what he has to do and he readily agrees.

          On the day of the match, Chowder, Dex, and Nursey arrive, all clad in their crop tops and Chowder bouncing out of his shoes in excitement. He loves his Sharks crop top so much and he can’t stop taking pictures of himself and the other frogs all clad in their tops. Nursey is grinning every one, but as the picture taking goes one, Dex’s expression turns from fondly amused to vaguely irked. He did already wear his crop top and now he’s doing it again. But, well, seeing Chowder so ecstatic does make it worth it.

          Minutes before the match is going to start, the opposing team is already on the court, wearing their typical jerseys. It’s not an official game, but most teams wear their uniforms to scrimmages and charity games anyway, because why wouldn’t they? An air horn goes off, announcing the arrival of the Samwell Women’s Volleyball team, and everyone cheers as they come running out of their locker room.

          The frogs whoop loudly as the girls filter out, all wearing their crop tops of varying colors and styles proudly. Farmer’s says “You just got served.” with a little volleyball player silhouette on it. It is pink and awesome and Chowder blushes when he sees her because _damn_ she looks good. Farmer winks at him when she gets into position and Dex and Nursey on either side of him whoop, infinitely increasing his embarrassment.

          The Samwell Women’s Volleyball Team wins awesomely and looks amazing doing it. The press on the sidelines may focus a little too heavily on the Samwell side, but they look really s’wawesome. The players all take selfies and a group photo and post them to Twitter under the #CropTopMovement tag. The Swallow gets some quotes for the next edition, marveling at how fast the movement is growing. It’s still fairly local, but everyone in the Samwell vicinity is aware of the movement and its message, which is pretty impressive.

          Chowder is, of course, incredibly happy about the increased attention for the issue, but he is also ecstatic at seeing his girlfriend in her tight crop top. Chowder is a very lucky guy. (Farmer is also very lucky because Chowder in a crop top, well, simply put- _yum_.) The couple has a pretty s’wawesome night.

 

*~*~*

 

          “What is this party for?” Tango asks. Whiskey is behind him, getting dressed as Tango plays with his crop top. He likes it, a lot actually. He’s never really worn anything besides the traditional male clothing and he wants to branch out more. There are so many things he hasn’t gotten to try and now that he’s in college he can question himself and the world more than he ever could.

          “It’s a frosh party. Like an intro kind of thing. It’s at Lake Quad, school sanctioned or whatever. There’s supposed to be a bonfire, I think.” Whiskey comes around into Tango’s field of vision and he looks _fine_. It’s just a simple hoodie-styled crop top, but on Whiskey, with his abs and arms and shoulders, makes it look incredibly hot. For a moment, Tango wonders if he should be exploring his sexuality as well as his clothing choices.

          “You look good,” he tells Whiskey. Whiskey smiles, smooth and easy, because he has no issue accepting a compliment.

          “Thanks, dude, you look great too. Just, hold on.” Whiskey steps forward and tugs Tango’s shorts down just a little bit, so the hem is resting just under the start of where a V line would be. “There. You’ll be knocking girls out left and right.” He turns around to grab his stuff. Tango is kind of flustered.

          “Do you like men?” Tango asks because he has never met a question he hasn’t asked. Whiskey glances over his shoulder at Tango and shrugs.

          “Sometimes. I haven’t really figured it out yet. But that’s what college is for, yeah?” Tango nods, pleased with this answer, and they leave the dorm and head to the party.

          The party is awesome. A bunch of people are wearing crop tops too, as the movement has really picked up speed since the Samwell/Harvard hockey game and the charity volleyball game. Everyone on campus knows about the infamous Harvard professor and the crop top incident.

          Many people know that Tango and Whiskey are on the hockey team with the guys who started the movement so they get a lot more attention than they usually would at a party. They end up taking a bunch of pictures and discussing the issue with several groups of people and, at the end of the night, everyone who wore a crop top gets together on the beach and takes a group photo. It’s posted on the Samwell webpage with an article about the movement and the headline “Samwell Supports the Crop Top Movement.”

          Tango and Whiskey are incredibly proud of themselves.

 

*~*~*

 

          The day after the skype call with Bitty, Jack told the team about the Crop Top Movement. He explained what happened with Shitty and his professor and how they were protesting this injustice. The team immediately agreed to help, which was nice because Jack hasn’t known them all that long but they are still right behind him. It’s nice to know that Samwell’s “got your back” saying is still true with the Falconers.

          They talked to some of the PR people and asked if they could start selling Falconers crop tops in their store, but the production would’ve taken too long so they went with their Plan B. Instead of going out and finding crop tops for each of them, which would have taken too long, they all ordered their own jerseys from the Falconers’ store and turned them into crop tops by sewing and hemming them, with Bitty’s careful instruction, of course.

          The day after Jack finishes his, he wears it walking around town. Wearing the crop top, he goes on his morning jog, gets coffee from his favorite coffee place, and does some shopping at the farmer’s market down the street from his apartment. From the second he steps out into the public, there are people with cameras following him around. Usually, he hates it and does his best to ignore it, but today he makes sure that they get a decent amount of pictures of him in his homemade crop top.

          Though he already knows he will be in the headlines by tomorrow, Jack takes one of those “selfie” things that Bitty has been teaching him about and posts it on his rarely used Twitter account with the tag, #CropTopMovement. Within minutes, it explodes. The Falconers’ official Twitter account retweets it, bringing it to the eyes of millions of hockey fans. Jack’s dad, Bad Bob Zimmermann, retweets it and adds “Where can I get one of these?” which, understandably, crashes the internet. By the end of the day, the tweet has been favorited over one million times and the #CropTopMovement tag is blowing up with attention.

          The next day, Tater wears his crop top- which turned out incredibly short due to a mishap during production- out to lunch with his sister and, somehow, convinces his sister to wear a crop top too, though it isn’t a Falconer’s one. The media takes the pictures of Tater and his sister and puts them up side-by-side with Jack’s. What are the Falconers doing? the media questions.

          The day after that, Poots and Snowy are photographed at Snowy’s niece’s soccer game, both wearing crop tops and cheering loudly for the Bustling Bees (the name of the niece’s team.) The amount of pictures of Snowy holding a little blonde girl on his shoulders, in a crop top and laughing with his head thrown back, definitely explode some ovaries (and maybe some testes too) across the hockey world. Poots gets attention too, but only because he tripped at some point during the day and somehow ended up in a pond. No one knows how Poots manages to be great on the ice and terrible everywhere else.

          On the fourth day after Jack wears his crop top, the Falconers hold a press conference to discuss the movement and really affirm why they are wearing what they are. All of the Old Ones, Marty and Thirdy and Guy, wear their crop tops to the press conference, looking ridiculous between all of the younger NHL players in their suits and ties. The Old Ones pretend like nothing different is happening at all, sipping their coffees and chirping the young’uns for their monkey suits.

          Georgia stands at the podium, fielding questions for the team until they are settled, and then moves out of the way for Jack to take her spot. The cameras flash in his face and he coughs once to clear his throat before beginning his practiced speech.

          “A lot of you are wondering why we are wearing what we are wearing. These shirts, more commonly known as “crop tops”, are a staple in one of my close friends’, Mr. Knight’s, wardrobe. Mr. Knight is an incredibly intelligent young man who currently attends Harvard Law School. The other day, Mr. Knight attempted to attend his Criminal Law lecture but was refused access because of what he was wearing; a crop top.

          “When my friends at Samwell heard about this, they were outraged. The idea that a professor would refuse to teach a student because of what he was wearing was appalling. Mr. Knight was not exposing himself, he was not being disruptive. He was properly clothed, yet he was denied a learning opportunity because of a teacher’s unfair, unchecked ruling. So my friends at Samwell decided to start a movement; the Crop Top Movement.

          “This movement is protesting the unfair treatment of Mr. Knight and any other school that may think that keeping it’s student’s “proper”-” Jack literally puts finger quotes around this word, it’s the sassiest thing anyone has ever seen him do- “is more important than actually educating. I invite the rest of you to join the movement by wearing your favorite crop top and posting it on any social media under the tag #CropTopMovement. Thank you for your time.”

          As Jack leaves, the room erupts into questions, but the entire team follows him out the door, save for the Old Ones, who begin posing like fashion models for the camera. Jack really loves his new team.

 

*~*~*

 

          In Las Vegas, Kent Parson turns off his television, a contemplative look on his face. He stands up calmly and walks to his closet, digging into the very back to pull something out of it. This piece of clothing is no ordinary t-shirt; it’s a garment that he never worn outside of the house since he bought it three years ago. He exchanges a look with Kit Purrson, who followed him into the room. She blinks solemnly at him, starting a slow but loud purr, and he knows what he has to do.

          The next day, Kent Parson is spotted at a local restaurant wearing a black crop top with a white kitty drawn on it. He’s wearing shades and a completely reserved expression, giving nothing away. After that, he’s photographed at a Bath & Body Works purchasing hand lotion and bubble bath, still wearing his crop top and plain expression. Even later, there are a series of photos capturing Kent Parson walking his cat, Kit Parson, using a pink harness and leash, still wearing his crop top. The cat, reporters say, is wearing the same indifferent expression as his owner.

 

*~*~*

 

          The day after Kent Parson basically implodes the world, the director of Harvard releases this statement

          “We, as a school, are offer condolences to any student we may have denied an education to for inappropriate reasons. From this day onward, we promise to never deny any student a learning opportunity for what they are wearing, as long as the student is not exposing themselves to the public. We thank the Crop Top Movement for bringing this issue to the surface and allowing us to solve this issue.”

          There are many other formal lines added to the speech, but this is basically the gist.

          Shitty calls the Haus and cries for ten minutes before hanging up. About an hour later, Shitty is at the Haus door, hug-tackling everyone in the vicinity and somehow getting naked within seconds without anyone noticing. The Tadpoles are overwhelmed and amazed, Bitty frets because he didn’t have a chance to make Shitty’s favorite pie, the Frogs suffer under the combined weight of Shitty, Ransom, and Holster (the latter two piling on after Shitty tackled the Frogs because group bro hugs are fucking _s’wawesome_ ), and Lardo actually _blushes_ when Shitty picks her up, spins her around, and presses a huge kiss on her face.

          Shitty keeps crying every hour on the hour and they all sit in front of the TV and watch Shitty’s asshole professor apologize for his asshole-ness over and over again while eating pie straight out of the pan.

          (Later that night, in Providence, Jack wakes up to Shitty spooning him, sobbing, and whispering “You magnificent bastard” over and over again.)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and kudos are always appreciated! Thanks for reading :)


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